Echoes of a Silent Night
by Midori
Summary: "This world is disillusional, Matt. So god damn wrapped up in its many illusions and resentments...Things happened in my life that made me change. It made me see, made me open my eyes. Now I can truly say I'm not blind."-Mimi. Seems like Destiny and F


DUDE! WHERE'S MY CAR?! 

[no, just kidding.]   
  


Author's notes: Whoa. DUDE! [::just went to watch 'Dude, where's my car?':: so please forgive me.] Where's my car?! Chinese fooooood! And Then? ::laughs hysterically:: Okay, um, well...this...this is different. I don't why I put this in Romance, and why it's PG13. It could be called more Drama-like, and more of a rated R type for...adult situations. No, you hentai, it's not about sex! I'm planning to write Yamato 'pairing off' with Mimi, ...but I'm not sure. All in all...this is pretty grim stuff. You've been warned.   
  


Echoes of a Silent Night   
  
  
  


She stared out at the chilly night air, the moonbeams glancing off the street posts and small puddles of melting snow. So many forsaken years...so much time lost, she thought sadly to herself as she continued on walking through the empty streets. Her footsteps clanged onto the pavement, her new timberland boots echoing loud thuds as it vibrated off the shadows. 

"I wish I could change them all...change what I've become." she whispered fiercely to herself, her hands reaching up to yank at the scarf on her neck. She paused before a particular coffee shop, a wiry smile on her lips as she opened the door and let a warm rush of heat envelop her. The place was very much active, as a group of teenagers like herself huddled next to different tables, conversation buzzing as steaming cups of mocha was passed from hand to hand. 

She seated herself at a small table for two, running a hand through her unnatural blonde hair, curled and dyed a light shade of magenta at the tips. "Mom always said pink wasn't my color. How wrong she is." She said ironically as she sipped from her frothing cup of latte. It was getting late, and some of the younger teens were leaving, the time getting past their curfew. Yet she stayed; it wasn't like she had a home, had a curfew. Not anymore. 

"Poor Odaiba. So disillusioned." She mumbled, her fingers tapping the half-empty ceramic cup. She got up from her seat, heading towards the door as she watched a young man scramble up to retrieve his cup of coffee, his haste amusing her, somehow. 

"Shit! I'm late! The boss is going to kill me." He moaned, grabbing his cup and running out the door, nearly colliding with her silent figure. 

"Watch it." She warned him quietly, her voice coming out flat and cold, very much like the breeze that whipped around them, stinging her face. 

"Sorry." He muttered as he looked down at his watch, trying not to stay much longer. She studied his face and regarded him with a piercing gaze. He noticed, and shifted his weight uncomfortably as he balanced his tray of cups. 

Something about the guy's distant attitude reminded her of...herself. She felt an instant stab of regret at her heart, causing her to wipe away some moisture that had began to drift down her cheeks. 

"You're not crying because I almost crashed into you, are you?" The guy asked incrediously as he peered down at her. 

"I am NOT!" She yelled hoarsely, her fists clenching in rigid anger. "I am not crying over that, I am not crying over anything!" The young blonde man, taken aback by her furious emotion, backed away slowly. "Damn you." She whispered as she shoved him to the ground, with a burst of strength that she never knew she had. In her fury, her crest dropped down to the ground with a loud twinkle, shining innocently up at the both of them, its green signature indented into the gold plate. 

He looked up at her, his mouth opening and closing in shock. "...Mimi......?" She immediately froze, her eyes darting to him and the crest continuously. A look of realization came over her face as she glanced at him once more. 

"Yamato...?" Mimi hesitated for a second before running down the street aimlessly. Pausing, she found herself staring up at Sora's apartment complex, and went inside.   
  


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"So many years! So much wasted effort!" Her voice echoed in the cozy apartment of the Takenouchi's, where a startled redheaded girl listened to her pleads and rants, shocked and null with surprise. 

"What are you saying?" Sora's voice was almost drowned out in the blazing crackling of a fire roaring merrily in the fireplace. Her friend stopped speaking for a moment of uncomfortable silence. "What's wrong?" 

"What's wrong?"Mimi repeated in vague disbelief. A swift shake of her head sent pink strands of hair flying. "We're so...different, Sora. You....You're embraced by the things life has to offer. So...god damn innocent." 

She turned away, pausing for a brief moment before sticking her hand gingerly into the hungry flames, which licked at her fingers desperately. Sora jumped up from the couch in a frenzied rush, jerking Mimi's pale hand with yank away from the fire and slapping her full in the face. As her trimmed pink tresses flowed around her, Mimi reached up an unsteady hand to touch her own cheek slowly, where a large red hand mark had appeared blotchily. "Damn." She whispered, her fingers tracing the red lines. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sora screamed at her, her breath coming out in short, choppy gasps. Mimi's hand ceased to move, and instead she curtly showed her the hand which had been in the flames. Sora drew in a sharp breath as she gazed at the unscarred hand. The fire had not burned it, had not hurt it. She shook her glance from her hand to Mimi's eyes, which were staring at her curiously. "No way,"she whispered. Convulsing silently, she walked over to her purse and withdrew from it a pack of cigarettes. 

A lighter flickered, and the cigarette smoke was soon floating around like a deep mist. 

"I always wondered why there was a smell of smoke in the air. I never would've guessed. I just thought it would be from the fireplace." Mimi said delicately as she watched her inhale heavily. 

"Shut up." Was the indifferent reply. 

She watched, a pitiful look in her sad glazed amber eyes. "Oh, Sora. Poor Sora. Looks like Destiny's caught up with Love, too." A swift shake of the head as she kneeled and reached out her unharmed hand to her friend, still puffing on the cigarette as tears ran quietly from her eyes. "Destiny won't let us die. Not now. Destiny won't let us be free, it won't let the Digital Destined die without knowing pain. It wants us to suffer. Nothing can harm us, and yet, sometimes we just want to die, but it can't let us go that easily." She tried to put a reassuring tone in her voice as she stroked Sora's hair in a motherly fashion, but it failed miserably. Truth to tell, she was never the one to raise spirits. It was always Sora; but here Sora was, sobbing uncontrollably. _Destiny has its ironic ways._ She thought wryly. 

She felt as if nothing else could help. Nothing could help. She stood up, walked over to the door without a look back, and closed the door behind her gently, the smell of smoke still wafting precariously in the air.   
  


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"Hey. Is this Ishida?" She whispered into the phone, her voice throaty and hoarse. Standing outside, down the street from Sora's complex was a pay phone booth. It was time to get everything out, and maybe the best choice wasn't Yamato. But it was worth a try, even a feeble one. 

"Yeah. Who's this?" A foggy reception blurred the voice, but it was him. 

"S'Tachikawa." 

"Oh." 

"Yeah." Inability to speak was a continual ongoing habit of hers, lately. The scene with Sora had shaken her up in the worst way: pity and sympathy. Mimi Tachikawa was not about sympathy. She had to learn that the hard way. "I need you to meet me somewhere. Anywhere." 

"Oh." He sounded unsurprised, which was unexpected. "You know where I live, right?" 

"Yeah." She remembered; it wasn't hard to notice the big house-almost a mansion- standing behind the radio tower. 

"Meet me there in five minutes." The phone went dead as she hung it back on its hook. 

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Ding dong. The door swung open with a loud clash as it hit the back wall. "Shit." He muttered as she looked on with unmoving eyes. "Sorry." 

"No...problem." She said with a shrug, still standing next to the door uncomfortably. He shifted his balance to the other leg somewhat awkwardly as she stepped in, her face flushed. 

"What happened to your face?" He asked, his eyes glancing upon her cheek, where the hand print was still evident. Self-consciously, Mimi bit her lower lip as she remembered. 

She gave him a weak smile as she turned away partially. "Nothing. An accident." 

"So tell me, what brings you here, back to Odaiba?" He asked to cover up the deafening silence. Their footsteps collided upon the polished wood hallway as they kept walking on towards his living room. "To apologize for what happened earlier, in the coffeeshop?" 

"Nice try Ishida." She smiled vitriolically as she stepped onto the balcony, her gentle footsteps seeming like an intruder in the overwhelming atmosphere of the house. 

"I want a normal life, Yamato. But Destiny couldn't give me that." She looked up at him, her eyes regretful and mourning. "Not since I was four, when I saw my first digital monsters...I was cursed." Her voice took on a hard edge as she continued on, bitter and full of contempt. "I wanted to pretend, I wanted to get away. It wouldn't let me, couldn't let me. It kept me safe in my little bubble, full of pain and self-denial. What makes you think I want to get out of it?" 

"You're killing yourself slowly this way, Mimi. That bubble of yours will burst, sooner or later." He shook his head sadly, quietly, focusing on the problem at hand. "Denial won't help, and thinking it's all a curse..." He paused, hesitating to look out at the surrounding horizon. "It's a gift. A gift we used to help others, as they're using to help us." 

"Lies," she replied in an off-tone, "that's a bunch of stupid lies." She closed her eyes tightly as she clenched her jaw, her fingers touching the ring dangling softly on her necklace. "This world is disillusional, Matt. So god damn wrapped up in its many illusions and resentments." She turned to face him, a serious and somber expression on her face. "I can't live with that anymore. Someday I know I'll go crazy and end up in a mental ward, all because of the twinkling lights the world's surrounded itself in." 

"What made you change...?" He asked, more of a question to himself, and she smiled in a fierce grimace. 

"Everything. And yet, nothing." She bowed her head, her chin touching the balcony bar thoughtfully. "I finally learned not to try to change Fate. Not to walk as if I knew what I was doing, not to act as if I controlled my life. Cause I don't." A soft, sharp exhalation of breath came out of her mouth. "Things happened in my life that made me change. It made me see, made me open my eyes. Now I can truly say I'm not blind." She smiled sadly at him, a soft shh sound escaping her lips. "Don't say anything. Don't say that I still have a way back. I don't. You're still lucky, Ishida. You still have a home, a family, a brother, parents." 

"What do they have to do with...?" He began slowly, but she silenced him by placing a finger on his lips. 

Another sad smile greeted him as she shook her head. "My parents are...dead." 


End file.
